The Soft P
by stormy.grace
Summary: The Great Soft P Debate of 2014 erupts at Rory and Dean's engagement party. Based on a dream, title will change if I add more chapters.


**I own nothing from Gilmore Girls or H2O. And there probably won't be a lot of mermaid stuff in this story. It wouldn't even be a crossover except that it's pretty much the dream I had this morning. I don't know what's wrong with a Soft P, but it's Michel so I won't worry about it too much. And I don't know what song they were singing. All I know is that it was some town song in my dream, so I'm gonna go with that.**

**The only thing I own in this story is Ella Gilmore and her life. And the reason I even created Ella is because in my dream I was the third Gilmore Girl aka Lorelai's second daughter/Rory's little sister. She started out as Elena because I wanted her to have an E name, but it's weird for me writing about characters with my name (Erin), and it not be me. But I quickly realized that Elena Gilmore was way to close to Elena Gilbert, so she became Ella (short for Eleanor), and she is Lorelai and Christopher's second daughter. In this world Lorelai did leave home, but Chris followed her to Stars Hollow and convinced her to marry him. When they couldn't make it work they agreed to get a divorce and he left. Lorelai found out she was pregnant wit Ella before the divorce, but didn't want to hold Chris back or make either of them unhappy, so she didn't tell him about the baby. Which is why she's Ella Gilmore instead of Ella Hayden.**

**And for those of you that know nothing of H2O, Ella's boyfriend Zane is what makes this a crossover, but like I said Zane will probably be the only thing/person from H2O that makes an appearance in this story. And I don't even know if I'm going to add any more to this or not, so let me know if you want me to continue. Enjoy!**

"No! No, no, no." Michel argued, going against the entire town of Stars Hollow. "I will _not_ do it. It is beneath me!"

Lorelai tried her hardest not to laugh, but a giggle slipped out anyway. "Why is it beneath you, Michel? It's your part of the song. You have to sing it, or none of the rest of us can sing our parts, and I _really_ want to sing my part because I'm gonna do it in a chipmunk voice."

"And what does a chipmunk sound like?" Rory asked, amused at her mother.

"I don't know." Lorelai admitted, gesturing nonchalantly at her younger daughter. "Ella does the chipmunk voice better than I do."

Rory turned to her younger sister and smiled. "Do the chipmunk voice, Ella."

"No." Ella said, laughing. "I want to know why Michel won't sing his part. He's ruining the whole thing."

"It's beneath me." Michel said stubbornly.

Rory looked pleadingly at her little sister. "Please. I don't think Dean's ever heard the chipmunk voice."

"What?" Ella exclaimed, staring in wide-eyed astonishment at her soon-to-be brother-in-law. "Dean! You've never heard the chipmunk voice? You've known me for seven years, and you've _never_ heard the chipmunk voice?"

"I don't think so." Dean said, trying to hide his amusement and failing about as badly as Lorelai had. "I think I'd remember the chipmunk voice, Ella."

Rory nudged her sister with her elbow. "Do it, do it, do it! Do the chipmunk voice for Dean."

"Hang on." Elena said, turning and tapping her mother's arm. "Why is Michel's part beneath him?"

"It has a soft P." Lorelai replied off-handedly as if it were a completely normal thing to say.

Instantly the chipmunk voice was forgotten and Rory and Ella both turned and responded in the only way possible. "_What?_" both Gilmore sisters asked in unison.

"What's a soft P?" Ella asked, completely perplexed.

"I don't know." Lorelai said. "I was hoping one of my writer daughters could explain it to me, but apparently you two are no good. Why did I even have you?"

"Well," Ella said. "Rory was an accident, and I was a confused attempt to hold a failing teenage marriage together. Right Dad?"

"Uh…sure." Christopher said awkwardly, squinting slightly at his daughter. He leaned across the table and lowered his voice. "Emily is giving me that look. Could you leave me out of this?"

"That's a little hard, Chris." Lorelai said. "I didn't have her by immaculate conception. Do I look like the Virgin Mary?"

"Are you really asking _me_ that question?"

Suddenly an idea hit Ella, and although she didn't understand what was wrong with a "soft P", or even exactly what it was, she leaned forward. "Hey Michel! What if I sang the Soft P for you?"

Michel looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"I'll sing the Soft P for you so you don't have to." Ella said. "That way you can still sing your part and no one will hate you."

Michel considered his option and begrudgingly agreed. "Fine. You can sing the Soft P."

Elena smiled. "Great! Am I 'sup' or 'per'?"

Dean and Christopher both laughed at this, but Michel just blinked at her.

"What?" he asked.

"Which P is the Soft P?" she asked.

"You're only going to sing _half_ the word?" Michel was astonished.

Ella shrugged. "It's your part of the song."

"Supper." Emily said, drawing attention her way. "I think you're Sup."

"Sup witchu, Mom?" Lorelai asked, making her daughters, Dean, and Christopher laugh.

But Emily just stared at her blankly. "Lorelai, I swear. Sometime you just don't make any sense!"

"It's slang, Mom." Lorelai explained. "Like, you know, you're walking down the street and you see Bobby Joe, so you wave and say 'Sup man?', and Bobby Joe waves back and says. "Oh, not much, man. Sup witchu?'."

Emily blinked. "Where do you pick these ridiculous things up?"

"Life, Mom." Lorelai said. "Just life." She turned to Elena. "_I_ think you're Per. Supper. Supper. The second P is the soft one."

"Really?" Rory asked. "I don't know. I kind of agree with Grandma. I think she's Sup."

This sparked a huge debate which Miss Patty and Babette gleefully joined in on. Soon Taylor, Kirk, and even Mrs. Kim were debating which P was the Soft P.

Ella leaned over and whispered in her sister's sear. "Oh my god. Why don't we ever write any of this stuff down? This town could be an entire _series_ of best sellers!"

"But no one would believe it was real." Rory whispered back. "Our books would end up in the fiction section, and that just wouldn't be fair."

"True."

"Luke!" Lorelai suddenly shouted, standing up and pointing at her husband as he finally emerged from the kitchen to join the party.

"What?" he asked, startled.

"Which P is the Soft P?" she asked.

Luke looked at the girls. "Has she been drinking?"

"No." Ella said. "Michel won't sing his part of the song because the word 'supper' has a Soft P in it, whatever that is. So I came up with a brilliant solution and offered to sing the Soft P for him, but we can't decide which P is the soft one. Am I Sup or Per?"

Luke stared at her for a moment, amazed that this insane group of people could still come up with stupid stuff like this. After a while he held up his hands in defense. "I don't want any part of this."

"Emily's right." Dean said. "Ella's Sup."

"They dragged you in?" Luke asked, giving Dean a disappointed look.

At the same time Lorelai playfully chided him. "Hey now, buddy. You're already engaged to one of my daughters. You can't have them both."

Dean looked confused for a moment and then just rolled his eye when he realized what she was talking about.

"Zane!" Ella shouted, starling a few of the party guests as she scrambled out of her chair and dashed across the dinner to throw her arms around the young man that had just come in.

"Hey!" he said as he caught her and wrapped her in a hug, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Sorry I'm late. There was a storm and we couldn't land."

Ella wasn't able to fight off the grin his Australian accent caused, but managed to frown at the bad news. "Aw. Poor baby. Shame on them."

"I came straight here from the airport." He said.

Ella smiled at him. Zane was a relatively new addition to her life. He had met Luke and Lorelai, Dean and Rory, and even April, but he had yet to meet her father, half sister, or her grandparents. So far he had managed to weasel his way out of two Friday Night Dinners, and Ella hated that the first time he was going to meet Richard and Emily was at Rory and Dean's engagement dinner, which they had somehow convinced her grandmother to let them have a t Luke's instead of having a stuffy fancy thing like she wanted.

Of course, the only people in Stars Hollow that had actually met Zane were her family, and her sudden exclamation had drawn attention. Everyone was staring, and Miss Patty had that look in her eye, so Ella acted quickly and shoved him out the door.

"What was that for?" he asked.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw half the town pressed against the windows. Her family was inside trying to keep everyone from spilling out onto the street. She put her hands on Zane's shoulders and pushed him further down the sidewalk so they couldn't see him. "Trust me. It's for the best."

"But I thought you wanted me to come and meet everybody." He protested. "You invited me, and I know you said you didn't want me to meet the rest of your family like this, but…I came straight here because I didn't want to miss anything. I thought it was important to you that I be here."

"It is." She insisted. "But the people in this town are like vultures when there's someone new. And you're not only new. You're _my_ new boyfriend. From Australia." She pointed back toward the diner. "Those people in there are going to be _all over_ you, and I just wanted to have you to myself for a little bit before they start tearing you to pieces. This could be the last time I ever see you."

Zane put his arms around her and pulled her close, smiling down at her. "Of course it won't be the last time you see me. Why would you think that?"

"Because I've lived here one hundred percent of my life, and I know these people as well as I know myself." She said, slipping her arms around his neck and pressing closer. "And it's entirely possible that after tonight you won't want to have anything to do with me ever again, because they're all so scary."

"You've told me about them, though." He argued. "From what I've heard I don't think they're going to scare me all the way back to the Gold Coast."

"They might." She said. "I watered down the stories. This could be the last time I ever feel your arms around me, and I just want to cherish this moment for a while."

"Ella."

"I'm serious, Zane." She said, looking up at him. "These people are nuts. Kiss me now while you still want to."

"Ella." Zane repeated, thinking she was over reacting.

"Would you just shut up and kiss me?" she demanded.

Zane smiled and did as he was told, wondering why his girlfriend was suddenly acting so strange. Not that she was the world's sanest person. Ella was definitely different than his last girlfriend, Rikki, but he liked her quirkiness, and he couldn't believe that the people of Stars Hollow, Connecticut could be all that bad.

"I love you, Ella." He said when the kiss ended.

Ella's blue eyes went wide. It was the first time either of them had said it, and she wasn't sure that they _should_ be saying it because they had only been together for four months. She had only known him a total of five. She liked Zane a lot, but she wasn't sure it would be right for her to repeat the words back just yet.

"I…" she stuttered as he looked down at her, waiting for her response. "I…I don't know what I feel, Zane."

Zane smiled. "That's okay."

"I mean, I like you." She said, her words coming out quickly because she was flustered and panicking. "I _really_ like you. A lot. But…"

He cut her off with another kiss. "Ella, it's okay."

"What?"

He brushed her reddish brown hair way from her face, and smiled. "I love you, and I wanted you to know that. But I know we haven't been together very long, and it's okay if you don't feel like you can say it back yet. I'd rather you not than say it when you don't mean it."

"Really?"

"Really."

She smiled and hugged him hard. "Come on, then. Let's go back to the lion's den."

Zane took her hand and let her lead him back to the diner; still refusing to believe it was going to be that bad.


End file.
